September 23, 2014 --

Barber shops are known for cutting hair, not breaking down barriers but the Social Club GroomingCompany on Wayne State University's campus is succeeding at both.

"Here you walk into a conversation about sports, politics, gentrification," said owner Sebastian Jackson. "Anything and we want to hear all those different perspectives."

"That's what Detroit's about, especially Wayne State," said student and customer Asif Ahmed. "It's a really diverse university."

And this barber shop shows it

The story begins with shop owner Sebastian Jackson who grew up on Detroit's westside and in the suburbs of Kalamazoo.

"I've seen sort of both sides of the track and I have friends from both sides," Jackson said. "We (had to) create a shop that can show these people from these two different worlds and lifestyles that they are the same."

He opened social club in 2012 after wayne state rejected his three offers to lease unused space beneath campus housing.

And because he wanted a diverse clientele, he hired a diverse staff.

"I said we're going to be racially diverse, we're going to be gender diverse, sexual orientation diverse," Jackson said. "We're going to be the most diverse barbershop in the city and one of the ways we're going to do that is by hiring people that look different from each other.

"People have different values than each other and we make it a learning environment we're going to learn for each other."

Now the shop is thriving and making an impact.

It donates hair clippings help a non profit plant trees in palmer park and only local artwork lines the social club's walls.

The massive shelves housing textbooks and clippers that giving the shop it's unique look. They were made with reclaimed wood from an abandoned house in Corktown.

Jackson is also creating opportunities for his customers.

They rub shoulders with entrepreneurs , athletes and musicians during shop talk - an open forum where movers and shakers share their stories while getting a haircut.

"We give them access to these global and local innovators that they normally wouldn't have access to whether it's a dwele who's a grammy award winning artist or (Detroit Lions) Reggie Bush or Joique Bell."

It's far from your traditional model for barber shops... social club is generating a big buzz by bridging the gap between the young and old, black and white and every shade in between and it's redefining Detroit in the process.

"You come to the barber shop and you can turn your chair to the mirror and not be bothered," Jackson said. "Relax or you can turn your chair and face other and become apart of that conversation."